


From Left to Right or From Right to Left

by windfallswest



Series: Olin/Lands [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Last of The Jedi Series - Jude Watson
Genre: Curtain Fic, Family Dinners, Family Fluff, M/M, Meet the Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-05 00:40:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17908769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windfallswest/pseuds/windfallswest
Summary: Roan invites Ferus to family dinner. Now if only he could disinvite his family...





	From Left to Right or From Right to Left

**Author's Note:**

> Do I have a ton of these? Why yes, I do.

"So, Roan, how's it going?"

"Who told you?"

"Who told me what?" The hologram of his sister Mahin blinked innocently. 

"Are the comm fees from Corellia really worth it just to badger me? Jyan doesn't put me through this."

"Always." 

Mahin's smile was bright even over the low-fidelity transmission. Initially, Roan had thought having his little sister follow him to university on Corellia would be a drag, but that first year apart had apparently given them both time to grow up a little. They hadn't socialised much during Mahin's first year, but over the past two, they'd actually started to enjoy each other's company.

 _Some of the time, anyway._

"This is revenge, isn't it?"

"What's his name?"

Roan dropped back in his comdesk chair. "Ferus," he sighed. 

"I hear you've invited him over to meet the family."

"He's all on his own," Roan said defensively. "I'm just being friendly."

"Sure, sure. Is he really a Jedi? Did you meet him here on Corellia and never tell me?" Mahin asked, in a tone that promised special retribution if he'd been holding out on her.

"He was only in training, and he's from Coruscant. I met him at that café down near the water," Roan said, making an effort to keep his tone casual. "He couldn't decide if he wanted to try the blue-buttered rolls."

"Oh, so not so bright then."

Roan sat up in his chair. "He's very intelligent. And well-educated. We ended up eating breakfast together." Actually, they had talked through lunch. And all the next day while they hiked the trails in Gree Park. And eating dinner together twice that week... Roan finally caught the sly look in his sister's eye. "Hey."

Mahin grinned at him unrepentantly. "Well, if you didn't meet him here, when _did_ all this start that I'm just now hearing about it from people who aren't you?"

"...Last week," Roan admitted.

"And you're already inviting him to meet the family; fast work."

Roan felt a blush mounting his cheeks. "It's not like that."

"Sounds exactly like how it is to me."

"It's—he's—we're—" 

"This is so adorable; I ought to archive a recording," Mahin cooed.

"Argh." Roan scrubbed his hands over his face. "You are a terrible person, and also completely unhelpful."

"Do me a favour and don't schedule the wedding until next month. Some of us have midterms."

And with a wicked grin Mahin cut the comm, because she always had to get in the last word. Roan slumped over his comdesk, forehead coming into contact with the faint warmth and subliminal humming of the projector plate. _I'm so doomed._

This thing with Ferus, Roan had no idea what he thought he was doing. He didn't even know what he was thinking, except he had the feeling that Mahin had put her finger on it and he was potentially going to end up doing something monumentally stupid. 

Roan didn't want to think about any of that. He liked Ferus; they enjoyed spending time together. He was a little stiff, and endearingly awkward; but there was also a sadness hanging around him. Roan found himself wanting to give him a hug, even though he was smart enough to know better. 

_What in space do they_ do _to you in the Jedi?_ The question had been in the front of Roan's mind since they'd met. He was smart enough not to go there, either. And if hugging was a hyperjump too far, Roan certainly wasn't thinking about—  
Well, he wasn't thinking about it. He was going for a run. And then maybe a swim in the lake to cool down.

 

Roan had gotten his own apartment not long after moving back to Bellassa, but his parents were still at the old house in Bluestone Lake. Although he'd gotten used to having his own space, in some ways this would always be home.

Surrounded by the familiar noise and bustle of preparing a family meal, Roan was still having a hard time relaxing. He glanced up from the sauce he was stirring to check the wall chrono (again), only to have the spoon snatched from his hand.

"Hey!" Roan protested.

Payam bumped him out of the way with a hip and a distinct lack of sympathy. "Don't burn it, then."

Roan had only a moment in which to wish his remaining two siblings had shipped off to Corellia, too, before he was being handed a stack of dishes and aimed at the table with a firm push of his father's hand between his shoulder-blades. The twins were seventeen now, and it was getting easier to tell them apart since Payam had stopped growing. 

Payam and Durga were fraternal twins, not identical, but they'd always had a disconcerting ability to fake it when they wanted to. The dark green-brown hair they'd all inherited from their mother Enna, although the loose curls came from both sides. Payam wasn't "doing girl" (as they phrased it) today, which had used to mean marginally different clothes and hair styles but now involved specialised undergarments. They grew up so fast. 

The door chime sounded while Roan was finishing. His head came up, but Durga went rushing past him.

"I'll get it!" 

Durga was still a scrawny squirt, but he was getting dangerously close to matching Roan's height. Roan grimaced in frustration, hands full of breakable glasses it would be more than his life was worth to drop. His mother was very particular about her tableware. A parade of family members setting out finished dishes kept interrupting his progress, their usual conversation making it impossible to hear what Durga was saying to Ferus at the door. 

Roan looked up, and suddenly there he was. Ferus stood in the open doorway from the main room, gold streak glinting in his neatly-combed hair and a barely-perceptible nervous expression on his face, holding a guest-bouquet of flowers in front of himself like a shield.

"Roan's friend is here," Durga announced.

Roan elbowed him in the side as they crossed paths. "Hi, Ferus—"

"So good of you to come," Enna interrupted. "No trouble finding us?"

"No, ma'am. I hope these are all right." Ferus proffered the bouquet. "Thank you for having me."

Enna accepted the flowers and smiled warmly at Ferus. "Enna, please. Alexeir, come over here and say hello to our guest."

"Just a second, darling," Roan's father tossed over his shoulder as he bent to pull the main course from the oven. 

"And this is Payam." Enna caught Payam and reeled them in. "Payam, why don't you put these in water?"

"Hi," Payam said, eyeing Ferus and then smirking knowingly at their brother. 

"Why don't you come in and sit down?" Roan suggested, trying to regain control of the situation. "Food's almost ready. What can I get you to drink?" 

"Oh—anything is fine. Thank you." 

"Tea?" 

Roan shepherded him to the place next to Enna's at the head of the table and poured from the pot of seasoned tea that had just finished brewing. He claimed the next seat down, deliberately avoiding eye contact with the twins across the table. 

Enna untied the apron from around her husband's waist with the familiarity of long-established habit. Aleixir blinked in surprise, like he always did, and hung it on its peg before taking his place at the far end of the table, with Roan on one hand and Payam on the other. 

"So, Ferus, how are you liking Ussa?" Aleixir asked after the food was mostly finished going around. 

"It's a very pleasant city. There's a great deal to explore."

"I bet it's a drag after Coruscant." Durga sighed enviously.

Ferus frowned slightly. "Life is different everywhere you go, but that doesn't make one place superior to another. There are things of value to learn wherever you find yourself." 

Durga made a face. "All you're going to learn here is how to be bored," he predicted. "Nothing interesting ever happens on Bellassa."  
"Roan tells us you've been travelling," Enna cut in smoothly. Roan hastened to straighten out the threatening glower he'd been aiming at his brother under the maternal glint in the look she turned on him. "Is that for pleasure or business?"

"Neither, really," Ferus admitted. "I think it might be habit as much as anything. I haven't lived anywhere for more than a month or so since—since I was young."

Ferus faltered, but of course Roan's siblings were completely oblivious. The conversation had reached the the subject they were _really_ interested in. _Why couldn't I keep my big mouth shut?_

"When you were a Jedi, you mean?" Payam prompted helpfully. "Roan didn't say why you quit."

"Did you get hurt fighting pirates?" Durga angled. 

"Not badly," Ferus said.

Roan, about to tell the twins to cram it, turned to stare at Ferus, his mouth still hanging open. Belatedly, he snapped it shut, biting his tongue on the dozen questions that wanted to come pouring out. Instead, he sent his father a beseeching look. 

Aleixir stepped in to save them, where Enna was entirely capable of letting Ferus dangle to see how he'd respond. "Of course we'd all be interested to hear about your time with the Jedi, but we understand if it's a difficult subject." He reinforced his statement with a pointed look at Payam and Durga, who huffed and subsided in sulky unison.

Ferus ducked his head in gratitude. "Lately, I've been thinking that maybe part of starting a different kind of life is forming new habits. I've decided to stay on Bellassa for now and work while I figure out what I want to do next."

Suprised and thrilled for reasons he chose not to examine too closely, Roan couldn't help the broad smile that broke out across his face at the news. "That's great! Do you have anything lined up yet?"

"You should do something exciting," Durga suggested, "like exploratory survey pilot."

"Not _everybody_ wants to be a pilot," Payam objected, but then spoiled it by adding, "He could be a secret agent, or a bounty hunter."

"You both watch too many holo-dramas," Roan said.

"I don't know what I'm going to end up doing with my life, but I have found a temporary job." Was Roan imagining things, or was there a glint of amusement in Ferus' usually serious expression? "I'm working at a florist's."

Roan laughed in surprised delight. "No, really? I was _joking_." 

Ferus' smile warmed into something actually visible. Durga, though, looked horrified. 

"Roan, you have the _worst_ ideas. Never listen to him," he warned Ferus. 

"I hope we'll be seeing more of you, then," Aleixir said, not looking at Roan. 

"Any friend of Roan's is always welcome," Enna added.

Payam rolled their eyes, and Durga snickered.

"—I was going to say how empty the house was going to be next year with Payam and Durga gone; but actually, it might be nice to have some peace and quiet for a change." Enna pinned them both with a hard maternal Look, and the twins hastened to school themselves into at least a momentary semblance of decorum. 

"Don't let her fool you; she enjoys being surrounded by chaos." Aleixir looked up from ladling sauce onto his plate to flash a smile at his wife. "Speaking of which—children, how are your group science projects coming?"

Ferus relaxed as the conversational focus moved to someone else. As usual, he seemed to be paying more attention to the conversation than the food, although he did go for seconds on the keema biryani. Roan was intensely conscious of Ferus' presence on his left, reserved and watchful. 

He was at least as aware of his entire family watching them both—thank space not saying anything, but not really subtly enough that a Jedi wouldn't pick up on it. At least Mahin wasn't here. Roan decided he should probably start screening his com messages.

The twins both had schoolwork, so lunch didn't quite stretch on into dinner—Roan had missed that. Corellians were friendly enough, but they were all in such a hurry. What was the point of life if you didn't take time to enjoy it every once in a while?

Because Ferus was Ferus, he offered to help clear the table. Roan's parents would never hear of a guest doing work in their house, but they both smiled warmly at him. 

Instead, he and Roan ended up out on the back patio, watching the play of late afternoon sunlight through the trees. Avians trilled their familiar calls from the leafy branches, and a warm, inviting scent rose up from the grass.

"Sorry about them; they can be a bit much."

"No, they were very kind. Thank you again for inviting me." Ferus' lips curved upwards in a tiny smile. "I would never have guessed that you were such a troublesome child." 

Roan wagged a finger at him. "You go ahead and smirk. I'll com the Jedi Temple; I'm sure there's someone there who'll share embarrassing stories about young Ferus Olin."

"I'm afraid you'd be disappointed." 

That quiet regret again. Was Roan imagining a tinge of bitterness? _Well, and who could blame him?_ Who could say what went on behind those sombre, faraway eyes? 

"Never happen," Roan said without thinking.

Ferus turned his head, and the full weight of that penetrating gaze fell on him. Roan felt his breath rasping shallowly in his chest as the moment stretched. 

Haltingly, Ferus reached out and grasped Roan's arms just below the shoulder. It was a Bellassan gesture of comradeship and greeting between relatives or close friends, but this felt like something more. Ferus' grip was almost painfully tight, and he'd gone a little wild around the eyes. 

An involuntary laugh parted Roan's lips as he realised. _This is all new to him._  
He took hold of Ferus' biceps, completing the gesture. Then, as though watching from outside himself, Roan leaned forward and kissed him.

Ferus' fingers tightened spasmodically on his arms. The rest of him froze in startlement, and then he jerked a pace backwards. Roan let him go, although it was suddenly (suddenly, ha, since that first morning in the café) the last thing he wanted to do. He stared at Roan in shock, one hand flying to his lips.

"I'm— I— Attachment is forbidden to Jedi."

 _But you're not a Jedi anymore._ Roan bit his tongue.

Ferus took another step backwards, then another. Three more strides took him to the fence. Not stopping to look for the gate, he vaulted improbably over it. Helplessly, Roan watched him disappear.

**Author's Note:**

> The weird hair colours, big family dinners, and having a close relationship with the extended family are all canon. 
> 
> I decided to envision Bellassa as more or less India before I knew I was going to be writing things here. I've tried to pull most of my cultural research from the state of Uttar Pradesh, to keep things moderately cohesive. That being said, I've also tried to keep the SW tone and not be too heavy-handed—you know, that thing where they use generic descriptions for things instead of recognisable names. The idea is to make it Vaguely Indian Sci-Fi, as opposed to Vaguely AmeriBritish Sci-Fi?


End file.
